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Mr. Meaty Review/Transcript
Parker: 'Ugh...whew! Aw man, how could you stand to be near me? '''Josh: '''I couldn't. '''Parker: '''Oh dude, I am so sorry! ''(Intro) When I said that I was doing Mr. Meaty ''for this retrospective, a lot of people seemed to have a...problem with that on principle. After all, ''Mr. Meaty ''isn't exactly animated. At least not in the traditional sense. It's a puppet show, and a lot of people wonder: would you count a puppet show as a cartoon? Well, the answer is no, see you in the next review! I'm kidding. Puppetry is one of those things that's kinda on the "border" of what's considered animated or not. Different sources count ''Mr. Meaty ''differently. TV Tropes for instance, counts this show as a Western animation. While...Wikipedia considers ''Mr. Meaty ''as live-action. However, I personally would not count puppetry as live-action. The actual writing and humor of puppet shows...tend to use the strengths of animation rather than live-action. With odd-looking characters, fantastical scenarios, and quick-paced humor. Even if ''Mr. Meaty ''isn't technically a Nicktoon, it has a lot more in common with the Nicktoons than their live-action shows like ''iCarly ''or even ''Ned's Declassified. And let's be honest here; if I ignored Mr. Meaty ''for this retrospective, it's all that I would hear about for the next year or so. ''Are puppet shows animation? If you're watching this video, I don't think you care. Plenty of cartoons include puppetry or even have puppet characters, so that's close enough for me. I guess we can start off by talking ''about the puppets in the show. They are incredibly low-quality and they tend to look off-putting. They barely resemble something that you could call "human," but quite honestly, I don't...really mind that. It fits in with the Nickelodeon canon. Anything looks good after ''As Told by Ginger. All throughout the nineties we've dealt with people that had potato-heads or football-heads or...worse. These puppets were originally made for a bunch of two-minute shorts in 2002, which would often play during commercial breaks. They starred Parker and Josh and their daily adventures at the fast-food establishment, Mr. Meaty, their place of employment. The very first one of these was about Parker and one of the customers deep-frying their own hands and eating them. Somehow, this got popular enough for them to commission an entire series, which lasted for two seasons...and four years. The first actual ''Mr. Meaty ''episode came out in 2005, and the last one came out in 2009. So...altogether, that's about a grand total of like ''eight years of Mr. Meaty. ''While this show was long-lived, I can't say that it was all that popular. At some point it was booted over to Nickelodeon's sister network, Nicktoons, which is another reason that gives me credence to review it as a Nicktoon, considering even Nickelodeon apparently considers this a Nicktoon. I'm gonna sound...really, really crazy when I say this, but ''Mr. Meaty ''is overhated. Like, seriously overhated. I'm not gonna say this show is good or anything...because it's-it's not good. But a lot of people...like calling this show, like, "the worst thing ever," like it has a legendary status as bad animation. You see so many lists of the most disturbing kids' shows ever made, putting ''Mr. Meaty ''on it, and it's just '''not disturbing. I mean first of all, it's not a kids' show. Mr. Meaty ''is clearly a show aimed at teenagers and it's much more in line with something you'd find at Nick @ Nite, uh, than your typical Nickelodeon cartoon. But ''Mr. Meaty ''is actually not that gross or disturbing. Yes, the show that started with two characters basically deep-frying and eating their hands. And yes, another episode featured the characters juggling a tapeworm in their stomachs. If this was like, actually fully animated like 2D animation, I might actually agree with you, that it's disturbing, but the fact that this is a puppet show, actually goes a 'long 'way in its favor. If this was not a puppet show, I-I'd probably agree with a lot of the infamy of this show. The puppets look off-putting, but I do think that's kind of the point. ''Mr. Meaty ''exists in a rather...off-putting world. And the way these things look helps sell the disturbing things that are happening in that world. It's not like the cute-drawn ''Spongebob ''randomly suffering from a gory, pussy splinter in one episode. Everything in ''Mr. Meaty ''is consistent and you're able to get used to its ugliness. And...this might be just a me thing, but it's really hard to get grossed out by puppets. Even when things got quote-unquote "frightening" in this show, I was never disturbed by it. There's really only so much you can do with the expressions and mannerisms of a puppet to really sell the illusion of life. It creates some extra barriers that I really do think helps the show. What bothered me the most about this show...was its humor. It's kinda like...''Regular Show if...Regular Show ''was mellowed out on pot. ''Mr. Meaty ''is filled to the brim with "stoner humor." Most of the time, things are incredibly slow until something incredibly random happens! We need to deal with an episode about someone trying to get rid of acne, and then at the end the character loses their nose, it's kinda like that. I'm gonna say what everyone else has said, but, giving ''Mr. Meaty ''a full show...was a mistake. ''Mr. Meaty, its formula, only ''really works as shorts. I can actually, kinda dig its humor in short bursts. I-I know that sounds insane, but I did kinda like the shorts. I wouldn't go back to watch them too often, but it's not like an assault on my senses or anything. But when you have to extend those shorts to eleven minutes, problems start forming. And not helping is that the characters...aren't very strong personalities. The show stars a cast of typical teenagers...and that's all of them are. Just generic teenagers without any real personalities. I can tell the differences between Josh and Parker, which is more than I can say for the Breadwinners, but that isn't saying much. Parker is extremely gluttonous and a bit more stupid than Josh, and Josh is...not extremely gluttonous and extremely stupid. Josh ''has no personality. As far as comedy goes, there-there's a different duo on Nickelodeon...that has a Josh that you probably should be watching over this. Fans of Mr. Meaty, and, yes, those do exist, will tell you that you're better sticking with the first season. The first season dealt at Mr. Meaty and this crazy pseudo-disturbing things that happened there. Season 2 took some risks, and took the Mr. Meaty out of Mr. Meaty. Yeah, it was about the general lives of Josh and Parker, which was definitely a mistake. How do you not have Mr. Meaty in your Mr. Meaty ''cartoon? What is the point? Nah, it had them doing generic high school things, and even learning life lessons! Yes, the tapeworm show started doing episodes about life lessons. It's kinda like a more brain-dead version of ''Doug! At one point, we see Parker use a chainsaw to get into Josh's house because, he wasn't invited to Josh's party, which is cool I guess. Honestly, I was expecting a lot more from this show and I don't know whether to be grateful or disappointed. Like what most people assumed it was, I expected this to be one of the most infamous, disturbing things, you know, one of those things that I'd remember years from now like Mega Baby, or Adult Party Cartoon, or Mr. Pickles, or Where the Dead Go to Die. But no, Mr. Meaty ''is actually 'really 'tame. Like, I don't even remember like, having to look away from the screen once and I could, I could keep watching episodes, which is more than I could say for even other Nicktoons. Would I 'recommend '''Mr. Meaty ''to anyone? I...don't...know...It's not disturbing enough for those type of viewers, but it isn't really entertaining enough for anyone else. It's largely a mishmash. I'm sure that someone somewhere would have gotten something out of it, it did have two seasons after all. Maybe if the show was a touch more pleasant with better-looking puppets, it could have been a cult classic or something. As it stands though, it's just a minor, strange curiosity that we speak of in terms of legends. I'm glad that I finally checked it out to at least 'know 'enough about it. If you want to see it though...good luck. Episodes of this show are hard to find, unless you wanna use illegitimate means. Nickelodeon isn't selling it anywhere probably because they see it as one of their biggest mistakes ever. But if that's the case, I don't know why they're selling ''Breadwinners ''or ''Sanjay and Craig, cause no joke, I'd rather watch this than either of those. Oh, and I don't care what anyone else says; Mr. Meaty's theme song...is awesome. It is one of the best-constructed theme songs that I've ever heard. Not only does it sound great, but it sounds like it would be a really good jingle for an actual ''burger joint. It kinda makes you wanna eat at Mr. Meaty...at least until you remember that you're more of a Good Burger person. '''Announcer: '''Next on Nickelodeon... ''(Shows clip of the opening for Avatar: The Last Airbender) (End Credits Theme: "Toasty Buns" from PaRappa the Rapper 2) Category:Nick-o-Rama Category:Transcripts